Frontline Wireless wants to build a $12 billion wireless network that will be …

84 MHz in and around the 700 MHz band are up for reassignment as analog television stations are replaced by digital broadcasts in 2009. The Senate Commerce Committee held hearings today on how best to make use of the spectrum, and the most positive thing to emerge from the hearings was that members of the committee actually understood what is at stake: the possible creation of a third broadband pipe. But they're also big on creating a nationwide, interoperable public safety communications network. A company called Frontline says it has a novel way to accomplish both goals.

Currently, the FCC has marked off 24 MHz for public safety use, leaving the remaining 60 MHz for auction to private companies. The agency is currently finalizing its auction rules, which are the subject of intense debate by incumbent carriers (like AT&T and Verizon) and consumer groups (like the US Public Interest Research Group and the New America Foundation). The consumer groups worry that the FCC will simply auction all of the spectrum off to the highest bidder, almost guaranteeing that it will end up in the hands of the deep-pocketed incumbents. Such incumbents might have little incentive to create a truly innovative, nationwide wireless network, but committee chairman Daniel Inouye (D-HI) pointed out that the auction should be "a means to an end, not an end itself." Making money, he said, isn't the ultimate goal of the auction; serving the public interest is.

The hearing centered on a proposal by a new firm called Frontline Wireless, whose boss James Barksdale argued that his plan offered the government the best way of bringing wireless broadband both to consumers and to public safety workers. Under Frontline's proposal, the FCC would auction off 10 MHz from the commercially available spectrum and offer that to the highest bidder. The winner would also be given (free) 12 MHz out of the 24 MHz currently allotted to public safety.

The new network would have to be built to public safety standards, which are more rigorous than the carrier grade standards used in commercial cellular networks (more robust power supplies and backup systems would be needed, along with better coverage and reliability). It would have to be made available for public safety use at favorable rates, and public safety organizations would have the right to use as much of the bandwidth on the network as they need in an emergency. Network bandwidth would also be sold wholesale to any company that wanted to offer wireless services.

Frontline pledges to build out its system in 10 years and promises to reach 99 percent of all Americans. The company would spend at least $12 billion of private money building the network and would lease to public safety organizations at cost. The system would be "open access," meaning that Frontline would simply maintain the network but would not care how it is used by the resellers.

Several of those testifying today pointed out that state governments across the US have come up with plans to build a next-generation, interoperable public safety networks, but few have done so because of cost. A public/private system like the one proposed by Frontline would use private money to fund the up-front costs of building such network.

The proposal itself isn't new, but this is the first time the senators really had a chance to interact with it. It met with resistance from Ted Stevens (R-AK), who had a long and testy interchange with Barksdale over the company's plan. He seemed to be zeroing on criticisms that the Frontline proposal was simply a way for a new company to get a huge discount on a prime chunk of spectrum by playing the "public safety" card. Frontline is certainly a well-connected group with a former FCC chairman on board, but several committee members showed clear skepticism toward the plan and wondered if it would make sense to simply build a public safety network controlled and operated by the government.